placidly adv.– pleasantly calm or peaceful; unruffled; tranquil; serenely quiet or undisturbed: placid waters.
amiably adv. – having or showing pleasant, good-natured personal qualities; affable: an amiable disposition.
desirous adj. – having or characterized by desire; desiring: desirous of high political office.
condoled v.t. – to express sympathy with a person who is suffering sorrow, misfortune, or grief (usually fol. by with): to condole with a friend whose father has died.
rubicund adj. – red or reddish; ruddy: a rubicund complexion.
proffered v.t. – to put before a person for acceptance; offer.
doughty adj. – steadfastly courageous and resolute; valiant
jarred v.i. – to have a harshly unpleasant or perturbing effect on one's nerves, feelings, thoughts, etc.: The sound of the alarm jarred.
presumptuous adj. – unwarrantedly or impertinently bold; forward
fancy n. – a caprice; whim; vagary: It was his fancy to fly to Paris occasionally for dinner.
doggedly adv. – persistent in effort; stubbornly tenacious: "I won't let you share my dessert! I won't! I won't!" the toddler said doggedly.
talisman n. – anything whose presence exercises a remarkable or powerful influence on human feelings or actions.
enthralled v.t. – to captivate or charm: the performer's grace and skill enthralled her audience.
maligned v.t. – to speak harmful untruths about; speak evil of; slander; defame: to malign an honorable man.
antimacassar n. – a small covering, usually ornamental, placed on the backs and arms of upholstered furniture to prevent wear or soiling; a tidy.
dubiously adv. – of doubtful quality or propriety; questionable: a dubious compliment; a dubious transaction.
credulity n. – willingness to believe or trust too readily, esp. without proper or adequate evidence; gullibility
marred v.t. – to damage or spoil to a certain extent; render less perfect, attractive, useful, etc.; impair or spoil: That billboard mars the view. The holiday was marred by bad weather.
ill-gotten adj. – acquired by dishonest, improper, or evil means: ill-gotten gains.
prosaic adj. – commonplace or dull; matter-of-fact or unimaginative: a prosaic mind.
betokened v.t. – to give evidence of; indicate: to betoken one's fidelity with a vow; a kiss that betokens one's affection.
frivolous adj. – characterized by lack of seriousness or sense: frivolous conduct.
attribute v.t. – to regard as resulting from a specified cause; consider as caused by something indicated (usually fol. by to): She attributed his bad temper to ill health.
coincidence n. – a striking occurrence of two or more events at one time apparently by mere chance: Our meeting in Venice was pure coincidence.
avaricious adj. – characterized by avarice; greedy; covetous
disown v.t. – to refuse to acknowledge as belonging or pertaining to oneself; deny the ownership of or responsibility for; repudiate; renounce: to disown one's heirs; to disown a published statement.
scurrying v.i. – to go or move quickly or in haste.
at the expense of n. – at the sacrifice of; to the detriment of: quantity at the expense of quality.
bibulous adj. – fond of or addicted to drink.
resolution n. – a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.
apparel n. – clothing, esp. outerwear; garments; attire;
broach- to mention or suggest for the first time: to broach a subject.
resignation n. – an accepting, unresisting attitude, state, etc.; submission; acquiescence:to meet one's fate with resignation
apathy n. – absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement.
shudderingly adv. – trembling or quivering with fear, dread, cold, etc.
scarcely adv. – barely; hardly; not quite: The light is so dim we can scarcely see.
audible adj. – capable of being heard; loud enough to be heard; actually heard.
appealingly adv. – evoking or attracting interest, desire, curiosity, sympathy, or the like; attractive.
fusillade n. – a general discharge or outpouring of anything: a fusillade of questions.
reverberated v.i. – to reecho or resound: Her singing reverberated through the house.
Plot Summary: Part I opens on a dark and stormy night as the three members of the White family relax inside their cozy house. Herbert White and his father are playing a game of chess while Mrs. White knits near the fire. After his son wins, Mr. White complains about the terrible weather and nearly deserted road they live near.
A family friend, Sergeant-Major Morris, arrives for a visit. Over whisky, he tells stories of his exploits abroad. Mr. White expresses interest in going to India, but the sergeant-major says he would be better off staying at home. At Mr. and Mrs. Whites’ urging, Sergeant-Major Morris takes a small, mummified paw out of his pocket. He explains that a fakir (a mystic miracle worker) placed a spell on the paw to prove that people’s lives are governed by fate and that it is dangerous to meddle with fate. According to the sergeant-major, three men can wish on the paw three times each. The sergeant-major himself has already had his three wishes, as has another man, who used his third wish to ask for death. The sergeant-major has considered selling the paw, but he doesn’t want it to cause any more trouble than it already has. Moreover, no one will buy the paw without first seeing proof of its effect. The sergeant-major throws the paw into the fire, and Mr. White quickly rescues it. The sergeant-major warns him three times to leave the paw alone, but he eventually explains how to make a wish on the paw.
Mrs. White says the story reminds her of the Arabian Nights and jokingly suggests that her husband wish her a pair of extra hands to help her with all her work. The sergeant-major doesn’t find this joke funny, however, and urges Mr. White to use common sense if he insists on wishing. After supper and more tales of India, the sergeant-major leaves. Herbert says he thinks the sergeant-major is full of nonsense and jokes that his father should make himself an emperor so that he doesn’t have to listen to Mrs. White’s nagging. In mock anger, Mrs. White playfully chases her son.
Mr. White says he has everything he wants and isn’t sure what to wish for. Herbert says that two hundred pounds would enable them to pay off the money owed for the house. Mr. White wishes aloud for two hundred pounds as Herbert accompanies him with melodramatic chords played on the piano. Mr. White suddenly cries out and says that the paw moved like a snake in his hand. After Mr. and Mrs. White go to bed, Herbert sits by the fire and sees a vividly realistic monkey face in the flames. He puts out the fire, takes the monkey’s paw, and goes to bed.
Part II begins on the next morning, a sunny winter day. The room seems cheerful and normal in contrast to the previous evening’s gloomy atmosphere and the mummified paw now looks harmless. Mrs. White comments on how ridiculous the sergeant-major’s story was but remarks that two hundred pounds couldn’t do any harm. They could, Herbert jokes, if the money fell out of the sky onto his father’s head. Mr. White answers that people often mistake coincidence for granted wishes. Herbert then leaves for work.
Later that day, Mrs. White notices a stranger outside dressed in nice clothes. The stranger hesitantly approaches their gate three times before opening it and coming up to the door. Mrs. White ushers him in. He nervously states that he is a representative of Maw and Meggins, Herbert’s employer. Mrs. White asks whether Herbert is all right, and the representative says he is hurt, but in no pain. For a moment, Mrs. White feels relieved, until she realizes that Herbert feels no pain because he’s dead. The representative says that Herbert was “caught in the machinery.” After a pause, Mr. White says that Herbert was the only child they had left. Embarrassed, the representative stresses that he is simply obeying Maw and Meggins’s orders. He then explains that the company will not take any responsibility for the death but will give the Whites two hundred pounds. Mrs. White shrieks, and Mr. White faints.
In Part III, the Whites bury Herbert. Several days pass, and the couple feels exhausted and hopeless. A week after the burial, Mr. White wakes up and hears his wife crying by the window. He gently urges her to come back to bed, but she refuses. He dozes off again until Mrs. White suddenly cries out that she wants the monkey’s paw. In hysterics, she tells him to go downstairs and wish Herbert back to life. Mr. White resists and tells her that Herbert’s death and the two hundred pounds they had received had nothing to do with his wish the previous night. Mr. White says that he didn’t want to tell her before, but Herbert was so mangled that he had to identify the body by looking at the clothes. Mrs. White doesn’t listen, however, and continues to insist on wishing Herbert back to life with the monkey’s paw.
Mr. White retrieves the paw from its place downstairs. Mrs. White orders him to make the wish two more times until he finally complies. He makes the wish, and as they wait, the candle goes out. They hear the clock, the creak of a stair, and the sound of a mouse. At last Mr. White goes downstairs. His match goes out, and before he can strike another, he hears a knock at the door. Another knock sounds, and Mr. White dashes upstairs. Mrs. White hears the third knock and says it’s Herbert. She realizes he hadn’t returned right after the wish had been made because he’d had to walk two miles from the graveyard to their house.
Mr. White begs her not to open the door, but she breaks free and runs downstairs. As she struggles to reach the bolt, the knocking becomes more insistent. Mr. White searches frantically for the paw, which had dropped to the floor. As Mrs. White pulls back the bolt, Mr. White finds the paw and makes a final wish. The knocking stops, and Mrs. White cries out. Mr. White dashes downstairs and sees that beyond the door, the street is empty.
Character Analysis: Herbert White - The son of Mr. and Mrs. White. Herbert is an irreverent, affectionate, and loyal young man and the only surviving child of the Whites. He works in an unidentified capacity with heavy machinery at a company called Maws and Meggins. It is possible, although not certain, that Mr. White’s second wish reanimates Herbert as a terrifying corpse. Read an in-depth analysis of Herbert White.
Mrs. White - Herbert’s mother and Mr. White’s wife. Mrs. White is an intelligent and passionate woman. She shares her husband’s and son’s fascination with Sergeant-Major Morris’s stories and questions him just as eagerly as they do. She is lovingly attentive to her husband and son, although she also enjoys teasing them. Herbert’s death traumatizes Mrs. White, and she forces Mr. White to wish Herbert back to life.Read an in-depth analysis of Mrs. White.
Mr. White - Herbert’s father and Mrs. White’s husband. Mr. White is an old man who is both curious and malleable. A poor man, he thinks longingly about the exotic lands he has never visited. The monkey’s paw fascinates him in part because of its connection to those lands. Although it is Mr. White who makes all three wishes, he makes the first two only at the suggestions of his wife and son.Read an in-depth analysis of Mr. White.
Sergeant-Major Morris - A friend of the Whites. A mysterious and possibly sinister figure, Sergeant-Major Morris enjoys talking about his adventures abroad and shows the Whites his monkey’s paw, in spite of his professed reservations. A jaded and world-weary man, he discourages Mr. White from dreaming of India, suggesting that life is better and simpler at home in England. He throws the monkey’s paw into the fire and urges Mr. White not to make any wishes, but he ultimately tells him exactly how to make a wish.
The Representative - The man who informs Mr. and Mrs. White of Herbert’s death. The nervous representative sympathizes with the Whites and tries to distance himself from Maw and Meggins’s failure to take responsibility, stressing that he is following orders and not expressing his own feelings. He gives Mr. and Mrs. White two hundred pounds from the company.
Themes:
The Danger of Wishing
The Whites’ downfall comes as the result of wishing for more than what they actually needed. Even though Mr. White feels content with his life—he has a happy family, a comfortable home, and plenty of love—he nevertheless uses the monkey’s paw to wish for money that he doesn’t really need. As Jacobs suggests, making one seemingly harmless wish only intensifies and magnifies desire as each subsequent wish becomes more outlandish. After receiving two hundred pounds for Herbert’s death, for example, Mrs. White jumps to the conclusion that the paw has unlimited power. She forces Mr. White to wish to bring Herbert back to life, a wish far more serious than their first. Unchecked greed, therefore, only leads to unhappiness, no matter how much more one asks for. Intense desire also often leads to unfulfilled expectations or unintended consequences as with Herbert’s unexpected death and rise from the grave as a living corpse. Put simply, Jacobs is reminding readers to be careful what they wish for because it may just come true.
The Clash between Domesticity and the Outside World
Jacobs depicts the Whites’ home and domestic sphere in general as a safe, cozy place separate from the dangerous world outside. The Whites’ house is full of symbols of happy domesticity: a piano, knitting, a copper kettle, a chessboard, a fireplace, and a breakfast table. But the Whites repeatedly invite trouble into this cozy world. Sergeant-Major Morris—a family friend, seasoned veteran, and world traveler—disrupts the tranquility in the Whites’ home with his stories of India and magic and warnings of evil. He gives Mr. White the monkey’s paw, the ultimate token of the dangerous outside world. Mr. and Mrs. White mar the healthy atmosphere of their home again when they invite the Maw and Meggins representative inside, a man who shatters their happiness with news of Herbert’s death. The final would-be invader of the domestic world is Herbert himself. Mr. White’s terrified reaction to his dead son’s desire for entrance suggests not just his horror at the prospect of an animated corpse, but his understanding, won from experience, that any person coming from the outside should be treated as a dangerous threat to the sanctity of the home.
Groups of Three
Jacobs’s story is structured around a pattern of threes. The central force of the story is the monkey’s paw, which will grant three separate owners three wishes each. The White family is made up of three people. Mr. White is the third owner of the paw. (The second owner is Sergeant-Major Morris; the first owner used his third wish for death.) Sergeant-Major Morris begins talking about his adventures in India after three glasses of whisky and urges Mr. White three times not to wish on the paw. The representative from Maw and Meggins approaches the Whites’ gate three times before he musters up the courage to walk up the path to their door. Mrs. White orders her husband three times to wish Herbert alive again before he retrieves the paw. And the reanimated corpse of Herbert knocks three times before his mother hears him. In addition to permeating the plot, the number three gives “The Monkey’s Paw” its structure. The story is broken up into three parts, which take place at three times of day, during three types of weather. Part I occurs in the evening during a rainstorm. Part II takes place during the morning of a bright winter day. Part III is set in the middle of a chilly, windy night. By stressing threes, Jacobs taps into a number of associations that are common in Western culture. Most relevant to the story is the saying “bad luck comes in threes.” One well-known trinity, or three, is from Christian theology, in which God is composed of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Disregard for threes has been superstitiously equated with disregard for the trinity. In the case of Jacobs’s characters, faith in a non-Christian totem (the paw) may be interpreted as disrespect for Christianity. Finally, because twos commonly occur in nature (we have two legs, two eyes, two hands, and so on), threes are often used in literature to produce a perverse or unnatural effect.
Symbols:
The Monkey’s Paw
The monkey’s paw is a symbol of desire and greed—everything that its owner could possibly wish for and the unrestricted ability to make it happen. This power makes the paw alluring, even to unselfish people who desire nothing and have everything they need. Mr. White, for example, hastily retrieves the paw from the fire, even though he himself admits that he wouldn’t know what to wish for if he owned the paw. Its potential also prompts Herbert to half-jokingly suggest wishing for money the Whites don’t really need, ostensibly just to see what happens. The paw grants Mr. White’s wishes by killing Herbert and raising his corpse from the grave in an unexpected and highly sinister twist. At the same time, however, the paw’s omnipotent power may be misperceived, because Herbert’s death may have been entirely coincidental and the knocks on the door may be from someone other than his living corpse.
Chess
Chess symbolizes life in “The Monkey’s Paw.” Those who play a daring, risky game of chess, for example, will lose, just as those who take unnecessary risks in life will die. When the story opens, Mr. White and Herbert play chess by the fire, and the game’s outcome mirrors the story’s outcome. Mr. White, the narrator explains, has a theory of “radical changes” concerning chess. He takes terrible, unnecessary risks with his king, risks that make his wife nervous as she watches the game unfold. As he plays, he notices that he has made a mistake that will prove deadly. The risks and mistakes Mr. White makes playing chess parallel the risks and mistakes he makes wishing on the monkey’s paw. These mistakes ultimately lead to Herbert’s death, the most “radical change” of all.
Quotations Explained: 1. “He was caught in the machinery,” said the visitor at length in a low voice. “Caught in the machinery,” repeated Mr. White, in a dazed fashion, “yes.” Herbert White’s death has a literal meaning and two metaphorical meanings. Literally, Herbert died because he became entangled in the machinery, his body so mangled that Mr. White was able to identify his son only by examining his clothes. Metaphorically, however, Herbert died because after being caught in the machinery of fate, which went awry after Mr. White tampered with fate by making his wish for more money. A subtler metaphorical meaning has to do with Herbert’s employer. An undercurrent of class consciousness runs through “The Monkey’s Paw,” a story that concerns the fate of three lower-middle-class people. It is possible to read the Whites’ dire fate not as something they brought upon themselves through greediness, but instead as the unfair effect of a modest wish made by a family struggling with debts and a small income. Jacobs suggests that anyone, even the most moral reader, would behave exactly as the Whites did, making a small, practical wish just to see what might happen.
Jacobs uses Herbert’s death to suggest that society is unfair to the good, hardworking people in the lower classes. Evidence of this worldview comes in the form of the Maw and Meggins representative, who shamefacedly announces that his company will decline to take any responsibility for the accident, but will effectively offer Mr. and Mrs. White a bribe to keep quiet. The first word of the company name, maw, means voracious, gaping mouth. The suggestion is that Herbert has been swallowed whole by a cruel world, and all because of one understandable wish made by a man who simply wants to own his own house.
2. [H]e found the monkey’s paw, and frantically breathed his third and last wish. The knocking ceased suddenly . . . a long loud wail of disappointment and misery from his wife gave him courage to run down to her side, and then to the gate beyond. The street lamp flickering opposite shone on a quiet and deserted road.
The ambiguity of these final lines makes it possible to read “The Monkey’s Paw” as something other than a horror story or cautionary tale. We never see Herbert’s walking corpse with our own eyes, and neither do Mr. White, who is cowering upstairs, or Mrs. White, who cannot manage to open the door in time. One could therefore argue that the monkey’s paw holds no power at all and that Herbert would have died had Mr. White never even made the wish. The frantic knocking at the door is perhaps someone else entirely who goes away just as Mr. White makes his third wish. The plausibility of this interpretation adds a new dimension to “The Monkey’s Paw,” making it more than just another horror story.
Comprehension Questions can use this to make assignment
- missing the word kehir!
Vocabulary:placidly adv.– pleasantly calm or peaceful; unruffled; tranquil; serenely quiet or undisturbed: placid waters.
amiably adv. – having or showing pleasant, good-natured personal qualities; affable: an amiable disposition.
desirous adj. – having or characterized by desire; desiring: desirous of high political office.
condoled v.t. – to express sympathy with a person who is suffering sorrow, misfortune, or grief (usually fol. by with): to condole with a friend whose father has died.
rubicund adj. – red or reddish; ruddy: a rubicund complexion.
proffered v.t. – to put before a person for acceptance; offer.
doughty adj. – steadfastly courageous and resolute; valiant
jarred v.i. – to have a harshly unpleasant or perturbing effect on one's nerves, feelings, thoughts, etc.: The sound of the alarm jarred.
presumptuous adj. – unwarrantedly or impertinently bold; forward
fancy n. – a caprice; whim; vagary: It was his fancy to fly to Paris occasionally for dinner.
doggedly adv. – persistent in effort; stubbornly tenacious: "I won't let you share my dessert! I won't! I won't!" the toddler said doggedly.
talisman n. – anything whose presence exercises a remarkable or powerful influence on human feelings or actions.
enthralled v.t. – to captivate or charm: the performer's grace and skill enthralled her audience.
maligned v.t. – to speak harmful untruths about; speak evil of; slander; defame: to malign an honorable man.
antimacassar n. – a small covering, usually ornamental, placed on the backs and arms of upholstered furniture to prevent wear or soiling; a tidy.
dubiously adv. – of doubtful quality or propriety; questionable: a dubious compliment; a dubious transaction.
shamefacedly adv. – 1) modest or bashful, 2) showing shame: shamefaced apologies.
credulity n. – willingness to believe or trust too readily, esp. without proper or adequate evidence; gullibility
marred v.t. – to damage or spoil to a certain extent; render less perfect, attractive, useful, etc.; impair or spoil: That billboard mars the view. The holiday was marred by bad weather.
ill-gotten adj. – acquired by dishonest, improper, or evil means: ill-gotten gains.
prosaic adj. – commonplace or dull; matter-of-fact or unimaginative: a prosaic mind.
betokened v.t. – to give evidence of; indicate: to betoken one's fidelity with a vow; a kiss that betokens one's affection.
frivolous adj. – characterized by lack of seriousness or sense: frivolous conduct.
attribute v.t. – to regard as resulting from a specified cause; consider as caused by something indicated (usually fol. by to): She attributed his bad temper to ill health.
coincidence n. – a striking occurrence of two or more events at one time apparently by mere chance: Our meeting in Venice was pure coincidence.
avaricious adj. – characterized by avarice; greedy; covetous
disown v.t. – to refuse to acknowledge as belonging or pertaining to oneself; deny the ownership of or responsibility for; repudiate; renounce: to disown one's heirs; to disown a published statement.
scurrying v.i. – to go or move quickly or in haste.
at the expense of n. – at the sacrifice of; to the detriment of: quantity at the expense of quality.
bibulous adj. – fond of or addicted to drink.
resolution n. – a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.
apparel n. – clothing, esp. outerwear; garments; attire;
broach- to mention or suggest for the first time: to broach a subject.
resignation n. – an accepting, unresisting attitude, state, etc.; submission; acquiescence:to meet one's fate with resignation
apathy n. – absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement.
shudderingly adv. – trembling or quivering with fear, dread, cold, etc.
scarcely adv. – barely; hardly; not quite: The light is so dim we can scarcely see.
audible adj. – capable of being heard; loud enough to be heard; actually heard.
resounded adj. – uttered loudly: resounding speech.
appealingly adv. – evoking or attracting interest, desire, curiosity, sympathy, or the like; attractive.
fusillade n. – a general discharge or outpouring of anything: a fusillade of questions.
reverberated v.i. – to reecho or resound: Her singing reverberated through the house.
Plot Summary:
Part I opens on a dark and stormy night as the three members of the White family relax inside their cozy house. Herbert White and his father are playing a game of chess while Mrs. White knits near the fire. After his son wins, Mr. White complains about the terrible weather and nearly deserted road they live near.
A family friend, Sergeant-Major Morris, arrives for a visit. Over whisky, he tells stories of his exploits abroad. Mr. White expresses interest in going to India, but the sergeant-major says he would be better off staying at home. At Mr. and Mrs. Whites’ urging, Sergeant-Major Morris takes a small, mummified paw out of his pocket. He explains that a fakir (a mystic miracle worker) placed a spell on the paw to prove that people’s lives are governed by fate and that it is dangerous to meddle with fate. According to the sergeant-major, three men can wish on the paw three times each. The sergeant-major himself has already had his three wishes, as has another man, who used his third wish to ask for death. The sergeant-major has considered selling the paw, but he doesn’t want it to cause any more trouble than it already has. Moreover, no one will buy the paw without first seeing proof of its effect. The sergeant-major throws the paw into the fire, and Mr. White quickly rescues it. The sergeant-major warns him three times to leave the paw alone, but he eventually explains how to make a wish on the paw.
Mrs. White says the story reminds her of the Arabian Nights and jokingly suggests that her husband wish her a pair of extra hands to help her with all her work. The sergeant-major doesn’t find this joke funny, however, and urges Mr. White to use common sense if he insists on wishing. After supper and more tales of India, the sergeant-major leaves. Herbert says he thinks the sergeant-major is full of nonsense and jokes that his father should make himself an emperor so that he doesn’t have to listen to Mrs. White’s nagging. In mock anger, Mrs. White playfully chases her son.
Mr. White says he has everything he wants and isn’t sure what to wish for. Herbert says that two hundred pounds would enable them to pay off the money owed for the house. Mr. White wishes aloud for two hundred pounds as Herbert accompanies him with melodramatic chords played on the piano. Mr. White suddenly cries out and says that the paw moved like a snake in his hand. After Mr. and Mrs. White go to bed, Herbert sits by the fire and sees a vividly realistic monkey face in the flames. He puts out the fire, takes the monkey’s paw, and goes to bed.
Part II begins on the next morning, a sunny winter day. The room seems cheerful and normal in contrast to the previous evening’s gloomy atmosphere and the mummified paw now looks harmless. Mrs. White comments on how ridiculous the sergeant-major’s story was but remarks that two hundred pounds couldn’t do any harm. They could, Herbert jokes, if the money fell out of the sky onto his father’s head. Mr. White answers that people often mistake coincidence for granted wishes. Herbert then leaves for work.
Later that day, Mrs. White notices a stranger outside dressed in nice clothes. The stranger hesitantly approaches their gate three times before opening it and coming up to the door. Mrs. White ushers him in. He nervously states that he is a representative of Maw and Meggins, Herbert’s employer. Mrs. White asks whether Herbert is all right, and the representative says he is hurt, but in no pain. For a moment, Mrs. White feels relieved, until she realizes that Herbert feels no pain because he’s dead. The representative says that Herbert was “caught in the machinery.” After a pause, Mr. White says that Herbert was the only child they had left. Embarrassed, the representative stresses that he is simply obeying Maw and Meggins’s orders. He then explains that the company will not take any responsibility for the death but will give the Whites two hundred pounds. Mrs. White shrieks, and Mr. White faints.
In Part III, the Whites bury Herbert. Several days pass, and the couple feels exhausted and hopeless. A week after the burial, Mr. White wakes up and hears his wife crying by the window. He gently urges her to come back to bed, but she refuses. He dozes off again until Mrs. White suddenly cries out that she wants the monkey’s paw. In hysterics, she tells him to go downstairs and wish Herbert back to life. Mr. White resists and tells her that Herbert’s death and the two hundred pounds they had received had nothing to do with his wish the previous night. Mr. White says that he didn’t want to tell her before, but Herbert was so mangled that he had to identify the body by looking at the clothes. Mrs. White doesn’t listen, however, and continues to insist on wishing Herbert back to life with the monkey’s paw.
Mr. White retrieves the paw from its place downstairs. Mrs. White orders him to make the wish two more times until he finally complies. He makes the wish, and as they wait, the candle goes out. They hear the clock, the creak of a stair, and the sound of a mouse. At last Mr. White goes downstairs. His match goes out, and before he can strike another, he hears a knock at the door. Another knock sounds, and Mr. White dashes upstairs. Mrs. White hears the third knock and says it’s Herbert. She realizes he hadn’t returned right after the wish had been made because he’d had to walk two miles from the graveyard to their house.
Mr. White begs her not to open the door, but she breaks free and runs downstairs. As she struggles to reach the bolt, the knocking becomes more insistent. Mr. White searches frantically for the paw, which had dropped to the floor. As Mrs. White pulls back the bolt, Mr. White finds the paw and makes a final wish. The knocking stops, and Mrs. White cries out. Mr. White dashes downstairs and sees that beyond the door, the street is empty.
Character Analysis:
Herbert White - The son of Mr. and Mrs. White. Herbert is an irreverent, affectionate, and loyal young man and the only surviving child of the Whites. He works in an unidentified capacity with heavy machinery at a company called Maws and Meggins. It is possible, although not certain, that Mr. White’s second wish reanimates Herbert as a terrifying corpse.
Read an in-depth analysis of Herbert White.
Mrs. White - Herbert’s mother and Mr. White’s wife. Mrs. White is an intelligent and passionate woman. She shares her husband’s and son’s fascination with Sergeant-Major Morris’s stories and questions him just as eagerly as they do. She is lovingly attentive to her husband and son, although she also enjoys teasing them. Herbert’s death traumatizes Mrs. White, and she forces Mr. White to wish Herbert back to life.Read an in-depth analysis of Mrs. White.
Mr. White - Herbert’s father and Mrs. White’s husband. Mr. White is an old man who is both curious and malleable. A poor man, he thinks longingly about the exotic lands he has never visited. The monkey’s paw fascinates him in part because of its connection to those lands. Although it is Mr. White who makes all three wishes, he makes the first two only at the suggestions of his wife and son.Read an in-depth analysis of Mr. White.
Sergeant-Major Morris - A friend of the Whites. A mysterious and possibly sinister figure, Sergeant-Major Morris enjoys talking about his adventures abroad and shows the Whites his monkey’s paw, in spite of his professed reservations. A jaded and world-weary man, he discourages Mr. White from dreaming of India, suggesting that life is better and simpler at home in England. He throws the monkey’s paw into the fire and urges Mr. White not to make any wishes, but he ultimately tells him exactly how to make a wish.
The Representative - The man who informs Mr. and Mrs. White of Herbert’s death. The nervous representative sympathizes with the Whites and tries to distance himself from Maw and Meggins’s failure to take responsibility, stressing that he is following orders and not expressing his own feelings. He gives Mr. and Mrs. White two hundred pounds from the company.
Themes:
The Danger of Wishing
The Whites’ downfall comes as the result of wishing for more than what they actually needed. Even though Mr. White feels content with his life—he has a happy family, a comfortable home, and plenty of love—he nevertheless uses the monkey’s paw to wish for money that he doesn’t really need. As Jacobs suggests, making one seemingly harmless wish only intensifies and magnifies desire as each subsequent wish becomes more outlandish. After receiving two hundred pounds for Herbert’s death, for example, Mrs. White jumps to the conclusion that the paw has unlimited power. She forces Mr. White to wish to bring Herbert back to life, a wish far more serious than their first. Unchecked greed, therefore, only leads to unhappiness, no matter how much more one asks for. Intense desire also often leads to unfulfilled expectations or unintended consequences as with Herbert’s unexpected death and rise from the grave as a living corpse. Put simply, Jacobs is reminding readers to be careful what they wish for because it may just come true.The Clash between Domesticity and the Outside World
Jacobs depicts the Whites’ home and domestic sphere in general as a safe, cozy place separate from the dangerous world outside. The Whites’ house is full of symbols of happy domesticity: a piano, knitting, a copper kettle, a chessboard, a fireplace, and a breakfast table. But the Whites repeatedly invite trouble into this cozy world. Sergeant-Major Morris—a family friend, seasoned veteran, and world traveler—disrupts the tranquility in the Whites’ home with his stories of India and magic and warnings of evil. He gives Mr. White the monkey’s paw, the ultimate token of the dangerous outside world. Mr. and Mrs. White mar the healthy atmosphere of their home again when they invite the Maw and Meggins representative inside, a man who shatters their happiness with news of Herbert’s death. The final would-be invader of the domestic world is Herbert himself. Mr. White’s terrified reaction to his dead son’s desire for entrance suggests not just his horror at the prospect of an animated corpse, but his understanding, won from experience, that any person coming from the outside should be treated as a dangerous threat to the sanctity of the home.Groups of Three
Jacobs’s story is structured around a pattern of threes. The central force of the story is the monkey’s paw, which will grant three separate owners three wishes each. The White family is made up of three people. Mr. White is the third owner of the paw. (The second owner is Sergeant-Major Morris; the first owner used his third wish for death.) Sergeant-Major Morris begins talking about his adventures in India after three glasses of whisky and urges Mr. White three times not to wish on the paw. The representative from Maw and Meggins approaches the Whites’ gate three times before he musters up the courage to walk up the path to their door. Mrs. White orders her husband three times to wish Herbert alive again before he retrieves the paw. And the reanimated corpse of Herbert knocks three times before his mother hears him. In addition to permeating the plot, the number three gives “The Monkey’s Paw” its structure. The story is broken up into three parts, which take place at three times of day, during three types of weather. Part I occurs in the evening during a rainstorm. Part II takes place during the morning of a bright winter day. Part III is set in the middle of a chilly, windy night.By stressing threes, Jacobs taps into a number of associations that are common in Western culture. Most relevant to the story is the saying “bad luck comes in threes.” One well-known trinity, or three, is from Christian theology, in which God is composed of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Disregard for threes has been superstitiously equated with disregard for the trinity. In the case of Jacobs’s characters, faith in a non-Christian totem (the paw) may be interpreted as disrespect for Christianity. Finally, because twos commonly occur in nature (we have two legs, two eyes, two hands, and so on), threes are often used in literature to produce a perverse or unnatural effect.
Symbols:
The Monkey’s Paw
The monkey’s paw is a symbol of desire and greed—everything that its owner could possibly wish for and the unrestricted ability to make it happen. This power makes the paw alluring, even to unselfish people who desire nothing and have everything they need. Mr. White, for example, hastily retrieves the paw from the fire, even though he himself admits that he wouldn’t know what to wish for if he owned the paw. Its potential also prompts Herbert to half-jokingly suggest wishing for money the Whites don’t really need, ostensibly just to see what happens. The paw grants Mr. White’s wishes by killing Herbert and raising his corpse from the grave in an unexpected and highly sinister twist. At the same time, however, the paw’s omnipotent power may be misperceived, because Herbert’s death may have been entirely coincidental and the knocks on the door may be from someone other than his living corpse.Chess
Chess symbolizes life in “The Monkey’s Paw.” Those who play a daring, risky game of chess, for example, will lose, just as those who take unnecessary risks in life will die. When the story opens, Mr. White and Herbert play chess by the fire, and the game’s outcome mirrors the story’s outcome. Mr. White, the narrator explains, has a theory of “radical changes” concerning chess. He takes terrible, unnecessary risks with his king, risks that make his wife nervous as she watches the game unfold. As he plays, he notices that he has made a mistake that will prove deadly. The risks and mistakes Mr. White makes playing chess parallel the risks and mistakes he makes wishing on the monkey’s paw. These mistakes ultimately lead to Herbert’s death, the most “radical change” of all.Quotations Explained:
1. “He was caught in the machinery,” said the visitor at length in a low voice. “Caught in the machinery,” repeated Mr. White, in a dazed fashion, “yes.”
Herbert White’s death has a literal meaning and two metaphorical meanings. Literally, Herbert died because he became entangled in the machinery, his body so mangled that Mr. White was able to identify his son only by examining his clothes. Metaphorically, however, Herbert died because after being caught in the machinery of fate, which went awry after Mr. White tampered with fate by making his wish for more money. A subtler metaphorical meaning has to do with Herbert’s employer. An undercurrent of class consciousness runs through “The Monkey’s Paw,” a story that concerns the fate of three lower-middle-class people. It is possible to read the Whites’ dire fate not as something they brought upon themselves through greediness, but instead as the unfair effect of a modest wish made by a family struggling with debts and a small income. Jacobs suggests that anyone, even the most moral reader, would behave exactly as the Whites did, making a small, practical wish just to see what might happen.
Jacobs uses Herbert’s death to suggest that society is unfair to the good, hardworking people in the lower classes. Evidence of this worldview comes in the form of the Maw and Meggins representative, who shamefacedly announces that his company will decline to take any responsibility for the accident, but will effectively offer Mr. and Mrs. White a bribe to keep quiet. The first word of the company name, maw, means voracious, gaping mouth. The suggestion is that Herbert has been swallowed whole by a cruel world, and all because of one understandable wish made by a man who simply wants to own his own house.
2. [H]e found the monkey’s paw, and frantically breathed his third and last wish. The knocking ceased suddenly . . . a long loud wail of disappointment and misery from his wife gave him courage to run down to her side, and then to the gate beyond. The street lamp flickering opposite shone on a quiet and deserted road.
The ambiguity of these final lines makes it possible to read “The Monkey’s Paw” as something other than a horror story or cautionary tale. We never see Herbert’s walking corpse with our own eyes, and neither do Mr. White, who is cowering upstairs, or Mrs. White, who cannot manage to open the door in time. One could therefore argue that the monkey’s paw holds no power at all and that Herbert would have died had Mr. White never even made the wish. The frantic knocking at the door is perhaps someone else entirely who goes away just as Mr. White makes his third wish. The plausibility of this interpretation adds a new dimension to “The Monkey’s Paw,” making it more than just another horror story.